Spruce Pirate

Sorry no help from here. As far as I know FC will not, under any circumstances, accept lone working with chainsaw, no matter what safety systems you have in place and what 1st Aid certs you have. Doesn't matter whether you're employed by them, working as a contractor, sub-contractor, as a volunteer or anything else. If you're on their ground and want to use a saw you need NPTC's, PLI and at least two of you (second person does not have to be a saw operator, so long as they are there). All machine operators need to be FMOC'd. No exceptions, no relaxations, no nothing, right or wrong that's the way it is. Really sorry to hear that its putting a small rural enterprise out of business, but I'm not surprised that you're in this situation. Despite all the promises of supporting local enterprise etc, the FC will almost always fall back on a rigid set of rules which are much easier adhered to by the big players than the local small guy. Take your wife, take someone who's retired in the local village and looking for something to fill the time. So long as they're on site and capable of dialing 999 and communicating with the emergency services they will do!

Inspired idea.

Unfortunately, at the moment, I don't have the luxury of being able to go and see for myself, not that I wouldn't like to. I only asked the question as I was interested in any real differences in technique, training, etc between different places, we do all tend to do things slightly differently after all. Whether or not this makes anyone actually "better" is pretty subjective. I tend to agree that some from all nations will be good, and some bad. I have worked with Irishmen on the saw in the past and seem to remember they were pretty mixed, some good, some bad.

Ewan Kerr

I should be doing something more productive, but having just read another thread on here, there seems to be an idea that NZ / Ozzie / US climbers and cutters are better than the Brits. I've never worked with any, so don't know if this is true or not? Anyway, I was wondering why? Is it different training? Different techniques? Start on the saw younger? Must be something. Just curious.

Looks a great piece of kit. Out of curiosity, is it not better to lower the stump as much as possible before grinding?

How do you stage the scenery?

Art Deco Zebra Skin Rug?

Couldn't agree more - had two recently qualified lads start in the last year. Told each to cut 3m down to 12cm - totally blank looks, no idea what I was on about, had to explain about lengths and top diametres. To go slightly back to topic, one of these is now getting quite good and looking to do more tickets, the other hasn't picked up a saw in probably 9 months. The worrying thing about this is that in my world he has a ticket and so clients will accept him as a cutter, despite being extremely lacking in experience, on the other hand, if I take on a cutter qualified in 1995 who has not been refreshed since they will not. This seems crazy to me, but that seems to be the world we live in.:thumbdown:

Council guy is wrong - NPTC certificates do not CURRENTLY expire. The change of numbers does not affect their validity, it should be possible to find out which of the new numbers are equivalent to 10 & 16. Refresher seems to be the big thing at the moment, I have two clients who insist that all operators are refreshed every three years. If you were to do a refresher course it would be in the equivalent units, probably 30 & 31, you should be able to get a refresher certificate to go with this. I have heard that re-certification may be introduced, ie we would all have to re-sit our tickets every 5 years. In my view refresher is not a bad thing - especially for the more infrequent or part time users, but recertification is a totally different thing. I'd be interested to hear other peoples thoughts on this or if anyone else has heard anything.

I think there used to be a pick up version of the Mini where the lights were in the sides of the pick up bed, but the number plate was in the centre of the tailgate. I think the plat used to be hinged along the top edge and secured with a clip at the bottom, if running with the tailgate down you released the clip and the plate hung vertically. It was presumably legal to transport a load with the tailgate down then, but legislation may have moved on a bit since Mini last made a pick up.

How long is the MOT? Check the chassis and boot for rot too. If you have to pay to get the welding done you could easily spend another £1500 giving you £3000 for a motor that's almost 20 years old. Old Discos are great vehicles, but they need to be cheap as chips to buy.

Instant garden looks good when its done, but in my experience even 6' standards will sit for a while, and generally grow more slowly. Putting in young trees is therefore my prefered option as they're cheaper, easier to plant (and replace if there's a problem) and catch up the standards quite quickly. If you have to go for the larger trees compost is not a bad idea, I've done a few this way mixed in with the soil, I think it gives better aeration. I was always told to make sure and water them in well, particularly in dry weather, if you get a dry spell after they're planted make sure the owner knows to water them as well. Its a few years since we did any, but I think the last time two of us did three trees in just over half a day, including cages. Don't take that as gospel though as I think its at least five years ago and the memory's not always that hot.

Talk them out of planting 6' trees, put in 40-60's instead, pence to buy, planted in minutes, they'll take a couple of years getting to 6', but in the grander scheme of the lifespan of a tree what's five years or so?

Yes, I meant raising the dish up, not neccesarily on a pole. Point being, it was deemed much more acceptable to fell numerous large, established, albeit exotic conifers, rather than simply raise the dish up the wall or onto a roof. Didn't, and doesn't, make much sense to me.

You would think. But my experience suggests that it is actually easier to spend £000's and remove the trees than to stick a dish on the end of a 10' pole! It was good work right enough, but common sense didn't seem to enter into it.

Up here we apply to SEPA, so presume its Environment Agency down south. One license per business, you can request as many ID cards (credit card size) as you like, for £5 each I think, then keep one in each vehicle. Don't think you have to carry the ID cards though if its only green waste, but not totally sure, might be different in England anyway.

I assumed there would be something, otherwise polis and Vosa would be queing up every time a show moved. Thanks for the information, satisfys my curiosity.

There seeems to be a lot of knowledge on here regarding towing and the law. I watched the circus on the move tonight, they seemed to have quite a few rigs towing double drags, ie a unit towing a trailer with a further trailer hitched on to the back. I always thought that this was illegal in this country, unless 1st trailer is hitched via a fixed link such as 3-point linkage. Can anyone enlighten me further? Is it a special circus rule?

One of the boys got one about a month ago, has quite a lot of trouble starting when hot. Not sure of cause. Not been looked at by dealer yet.

I thought it was only 5% to domestic end users, if a commercial end user (for example a pub) it would be 20%? Anyone know any different?

Are helmets VAT exempt as well?

Yes, in whatever form - pole length, discs for self splitting, split, green, seasoned, by the bag, by the trailer load - if someone wants to buy it I'll sell it.

I spent the afternoon working with a still saw (disc cutter, or whatever its called). Found myself doing the exact same thing with the phantom chainbrake everytime. Nice to know I'm not the only one.

Ooops, I read back, instead of black, thought you were on about sign-writing.